Several schemes exist for synchronizing a time-of-day clock in one node, such as a time client, to a reference time-of-day clock in another node, such as a timeserver, over a local area network (LAN). Most of the time-of-day clocks attain their stated accuracy only when a network transfer delay between the time client and the timeserver is constant. Introduction of switched Ethernet created a class of local area networks where network capacity was greatly enhanced at the expense of a predictable delay between the time one network node transmits a time request packet and the time the destination node receives it. A reason for this is that the link to the destination node may be busy with other packets when the aforesaid packet is ready to be placed on that link. In such cases the packet is stored in the switch, which therefore is also a store-and-forward device, until the link to the destination node is free.